Gulf High School is shot into space (sort of)

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan, June 7, 2003 -- For a short time on June 7, Gulf High School made it into space.

At 4:15 a.m. (or 6:15 p.m. June 6, Eastern Time), a communications satellite was launched into space from a launch pad in Kazakhstan, one of the former Soviet republics. Hand-written on the side of the Proton rocket carrying the satellite were the words "GULF HIGH CLASS OF 1972."

It seems that Douglas K. Manuel of the Class of 1972 is Launch Operations Manager for Lockheed Martin International Launch Services in McLean, Virginia.

In an email to several classmates on the day before the launch he wrote, "We are getting ready to launch AMC-9 tomorrow. One of the 'benefits' of being on the launch team is signing the rocket. I took the team up on the MST (Mobile Support Tower) this afternoon. I thought that this would be an opportunity to get GHS shot into space. Getting access to this part of the rocket was a bit awkward (plus as you can tell, I was pretty far above the pad surface) so my usually cryptic handwriting was worse than normal."

The rocket on which the inscription was made was manufactured in Moscow. The launch was the 300th for a Proton rocket. The AMC-9 communications satellite which was boosted into orbit was built in France and delivered to Kazakhstan in March. The satellite will provide digital television service and data transmission for North America.

A press release announcing the launch can be found at http://www.ilslaunch.com/newsarchives/newsreleases/rec41/.

As far as is known, Gulf High School is the first school in Pasco County to make it into space in this way.